Ethanol Now Fuels Over Half of Brazilian Cars & Light Vehicles

Brazil is renowned for being a world leader in ethanol use and this telling statistic bears that out: According to Petrobras CFO Almir Barbassa ethanol now powers more than 50% of all the light vehicles in the nation. Biofuels Digest quotes Barbassa as saying that gasoline has now become "the alternative fuel":In fact Petrobras predicts that by 2020 that the gasoline market for light vehicles will shrink by 17%, with ethanol use increasing.

The reason ethanol has moved passed the tipping point? Petrobras touts the fact that improvements in production processes have allowed ethanol to be priced 40% cheaper than gasoline.

Overall though, ethanol still accounts for about 16% of Brazil's overall energy usage, with petroleum products still solidly dominating.

Globally, ethanol knocks less than 2% off demand for liquid fossil fuels.